All These Fires
by Sebe
Summary: Fic 06- Several short drabbles gathered together. Mostly Sasuke and Naruto with some Sakura and Sai too.
1. What We've Seen

Author's Notes: This is the first of a drabble series. Different drabbles, none really connected to each other. Most about Naruto and Sasuke being friends or more in some cases. Also, they tend to lean toward a more unstable picture of Naruto, who's just been pushed too far. Please review if you like it.

For this one; Unstable!Naruto. The crazy couldn't not rub off of Sasuke onto him eventually could it? And he was half there himself anyway.

Summary: Naruto still loves Konoha, just not as much as…

**What We've Seen**

Tsunade's eyes flicked up briefly, too fast for anyone to notice.

"That will be all. Leave me." She gestured to her guard Anbu. "You too."

They glanced at one another, but obeyed.

"As you wish, Lady Hokage."

She waited a moment and sighed.

"What is it gaki?"

She looked up to find the blonde glancing over her scrolls, an appraising look in his eyes.

"You've changed the room."

Tsunade suddenly felt the weight of her age all at once. Naruto looked worse than the last time she saw him. The boy was thinner, a bit pale, and currently biting his fingers bloody; a nervous and unhealthy habit he had developed, one of many. The tiny wounds healed almost immediately.

"Naruto…"

"Fire's coming." Naruto cocked his head slightly, running blood crusted fingers along the frame of a picture. "Few days, a week maybe."

He stared at the picture, some glimmer of recognition, of sadness flickering in blue eyes. Tsunade wanted to reach out, to struggle and find some piece of Naruto to hold on to, something to keep him here…but just as quickly as it appeared, the moment was gone. Naruto recoiled like he'd been burned.

"Rain'll help. You should get ready now."

The boy made his way toward the open windows. Tsunade wouldn't, couldn't let him go again. The Hokage stood quickly, surprising the blonde. She pulled him close against her, enveloping him like she could protect this fragile thing from the world. Trying so hard to make herself believe that she wasn't already too late…

But knowing that she was.

"Naruto…don't leave. Stay with us. We can help you. You belong in Konoha. Your dreams are here." She was lying. She knew where his dreams were now and they were nowhere near Leaf, they'd left this place long ago.

Naruto shook in her arms before slowly calming, reclaiming his composure. He didn't return her embrace, but he slowly laid his head against her shoulder. Suddenly, Tsunade had the feeling that she was the one being comforted.

"Baachan…" Tsunade clenched her eyes. He still called her that. "We can never be who we were. None of us. We change…for the thing that matters most."

Tsunade shook her head.

"No, then why even come warn us like this?"

Naruto pulled away from her, brushing her hair back from her face like she was the child here.

"Because I love this place…these people…" god, he sounded so lucid she could almost believe…

"But not as much as you love-"

"Baachan." The blonde regarded her with a smile, genuine and sweet. "I'm sorry, but I'm not, ne? Don't cry anymore." Then he was gone.

Only after he left did she notice the tears rolling down her face.


	2. Our Own Creation

Summary: Kyuubi warned Sasuke not to kill Naruto. He should have listened.

**Our Own Creation**

"I told you you'd regret it." Naruto's smooth voice was silk and danger and fire and wrong

Sasuke clenched his teeth, his body controlled into fine tremors. He knew this place, had been here once before. Naruto's mind, never really a happy place, but never this dark.

"Naruto?" he stepped forward cautiously, hand on the hilt of his sword. And then blonde hair blocked his vision, the impossibly fast movement startled him, but Sasuke refused to let it show; he could be just as fast.

Sasuke swung and his hand was caught, the blade shattered seemingly without being touched. Widened eyes turned to his old rival. He felt the bones in his hand creak under the pressure.

"Careful Uchiha." Slitted pupils glared red into his own and he caught the sharp grin. "Here there be monsters".


	3. These Mortals Be

Author's Notes: What would happen if Sasuke were actually killed? I don't think Naruto could take it. Just the thought of Sasuke being ordered killed dropped him to the ground with a panic attack after all. He'd snap.

Summary: Sai just wanted to protect Naruto from Sasuke, even if he ended up hating him. But he never thought that would be the least of their worries…

**These Mortals Be**

Naruto looked sadly at Sasuke, but he didn't move. If this was really the way it had to be…Naruto's heart broke for Sasuke as he noticed tears in the Uchiha's eyes. Were they really always meant for this?

Sasuke moved in for the kill and Naruto knew it would be quick and painless. Because Sasuke still loved him. This was just the unfortunate place their destinies had led.

Sasuke jerked and slumped to the ground and for a while, Naruto didn't move, didn't breathe.

His eyes gone wide, Naruto finally turned the blue orbs to Sasuke, lying so still. Sai stood facing Naruto, panting and still clutching his blade.

"Naruto?"

The blonde didn't hear him. Sasuke…why wasn't he moving? Why wasn't he attacking? Why was he still alive? Worried tones came from the boy in front of him, but it was only a distant din to him. Slowly, on legs gone numb, Naruto stumbled toward Sasuke's fallen form, brushing past what might have been Sai.

Collapsing next to the Uchiha on his knees, Naruto just watched him for a moment. He saw the tears that had filled Sasuke's eye drip down his cheek. Naruto reached out and placed his hand on Sasuke's arm, shaking him weakly.

"Get up." Another voice had joined the one already behind him. This one was higher pitched, but he paid it no mind. "Wake up. Come on, Sasuke. Wake up…"

Naruto continued shaking Sasuke gently.

"Naruto?"

Help. She could help. She would know what was wrong. Naruto drug his eyes up to look at Sakura, sorrow etched on her face.

"He won't wake up." He told her. "Why won't he wake up?"

Tears finally coursed down Sakura's cheeks and she hung her head.

"Naruto…Naruto…"

Deciding she was no help, the blonde turned back to Sasuke. Not shaking him anymore, but just looking at him, waiting for him to move.

Not a sound was uttered for several minutes. The two behind him only exchanging worried looks and, for one, silent tears. Eventually, the din returned, a bit clearer.

"What do we do?"

"We take him and leave. He's in no shape to fight."

"He won't go."

"Then we make him."

Naruto pushed a strand of black hair out of Sasuke's face. Naruto grinned at Sasuke in a way that stretched his mouth in an unnatural way, twisted his lips so that his fangs showed. He spoke to Sasuke in a way that was not unlike two friends sharing a private, knowing joke.

"Make me leave…You hear that, Sasuke?" Naruto chuckled lowly and the world burned in his eyes.

'_Let them try.'_


	4. How They Are

Author's Notes: The subtleties in Sasuke and Naruto's relationship are usually just that, subtle. Too much so for anyone to really see…until one of them is hurt. Then they slip, just a little, and they couldn't care who sees.

Summary: Sasuke's back fighting with Konoha, but people are becoming aware of the real reason he returned.

**How They Are**

Sasuke drops down next to the blonde, settling a hand on his whiskered face and making the group tense. His voice is whisper soft. Exceedingly gentle in a way that makes the nearby nins shift uncomfortably, wanting to turn away because they know this is something not meant for their eyes. Words and mannerisms reserved only for two childhood rivals that were each others world.

"Naruto…wake up."

Naruto groans, but doesn't open his eyes. He licks his dry lips briefly.

"Te…me…"

The briefest smile flicks across Sasuke's face. He runs his thumb over Naruto's brow.

"Hn…baka."

They watch as Sasuke grabs Naruto's hand and brings the limp arm around the Uchiha's neck, putting his own arm under Naruto's knees, another behind his back, and lifting him up. The blonde's head tips back bonelessly and settles comfortably along Sasuke's shoulder. Both of them look like they've never belonged anywhere else, never fit anywhere else and didn't want to.

Kiba turns to Sai in disbelief.

"You trust him?"

"Of course not." Sai smiles, but his voice is serious. "He'd kill any of us in a heartbeat."

The canine-wielding nin looks affronted and ready to pounce, to protect Naruto at a moment's notice. He grits his teeth and growls out at Sai.

"And you just let him be so casual with Naruto?"

"Sasuke won't hurt him." Sakura interjects. "He wouldn't think twice about destroying Konoha and everyone in it, but he'll die before he hurts Naruto again.

Kiba and the rest are shocked silent. He'd seen those two spar dozens of times since the Uchiha's return and it always went too far. There was always more blood than was necessary and they both usually wound up in the hospital getting yelled at and scolded by Sakura and Tsunade respectively. When they woke up, movements slowed by pain, they'd play cards and Naruto would laugh while Sasuke watched him fondly.

Sakura shrugs at Kiba's confusion, biting back a smile and exchanging a knowing look with Sai.

"It's just how they are."


	5. Ask Me Again

Summary: Naruto asks every time and Sasuke keeps running

**Ask Me Again**

Naruto leaned his forehead against the back of Sasuke's neck. The Uchiha did his best not to shiver as the blonde's breathy words touched his skin.

"Come home."

Sasuke didn't turn around to face the kyuubi vessel sitting behind him on his bed.

"Why do you always ask me that?"

"Come home."

Sasuke sighed. Naruto would never tell him, never answer him. He would just look at Sasuke with those liquid blue eyes and that permanent soft, sad smile and utter any words other than that same question.

Sasuke clenched his eyes closed, his head tilted down.

"I'll never say yes."

"I'll never stop asking."


	6. Fragments of Us

Author's Notes: A collection of drabbles that were even too short to demand their own drabble chapters. Just flickers, but I hope you like them. Please read and review ^_^

Summary: Several short drabbles gathered together. Mostly Sasuke and Naruto with some Sakura and Sai too.

**01- Naruto saves Sasuke from certain death one last time**

"I know I promised the next time we met, we'd die together…" Sasuke watched as blood poured from Naruto's mouth as he spoke. This was all wrong. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

Naruto shook his head. He smiled and touched the Uchiha's face lightly. In a trembling voice, the smile never leaving his face, Naruto spoke.

"But I couldn't let them kill you…I'm sorry, Sasuke…This is the last time."

In his mind, and then out loud, Sasuke screamed.

**02- Sasuke's been brought back and Naruto addresses the Council after hearing their initial sentence**

"I've never raised a hand to a villager, even when they hurt me, hit me, even tried to kill me. I love this village and I'll protect it to the death." Naruto's smile turned sinister and the Council flinched, some jerking back. Naruto's eyes were still blue, but there was fire in them and a certain madness.

"But if you hurt my precious people, my family…I'll show you what a true demon is."

**03- After a small, kyuubi induced breakdown, Sakura realizes how true Naruto's words to Sasuke had been**

"Naruto was right. They could have so easily switched places…"

Sakura shivered, her mind filled with the memory of Naruto, bloody and clawing the ground, head thrown back and cackling with an insane, childlike joy.

She thought of all that had happened to her hyper teammate; the betrayal, heartbreak, defeat, despair…all that had been piled upon Naruto's already heavily burdened shoulders…

"They still could. And it would be…cataclysmic."

**04- Sakura and Sai have a discussion**

"Sai, you…you love Naruto. You're in love with him, aren't you?"

"…It doesn't matter. Losing Sasuke…would destroy Naruto beyond repair. And I want to protect his smile…even if it's not for me."

**05- Conversation as the end approaches**

"What'll you remember? Of how our lives were…of how we were…?"

He's fading, they both are.

"…You…I'll remember you…"

Naruto bites down on the pain and tears mix with blood. He's okay with this ending, really.

This is okay, this is okay, this is…


End file.
